Idiot Of The Day – Gretchen Carlson of Faux News

Surely, the individual who thought up the first infamous “dumb blonde joke” had Faux’s Gretchen Carlson in mind as the perfect mould for this genre.

She is dumb beyond belief and on any given day easily qualifies as both an idiot and a “pants on fire”  purveyor of un-truthiness.

Carlson was at it again on Faux yesterday when she attempted to use the horrific killings at Charlie Hebdo in Paris to launch totally false attacks against, you guessed it, President Obama and his administration. 

Forget the killings, the horror, the assault on freedom of speech.  To Carlson this was simply another reason (anything will do) to enhance her ratings with the crazies who watch her show.  While the smoke from machine guns was still clearing in Paris she couldn’t wait to begin politicizing this tragedy with outright falsehoods:

Carlson: "It is what it is. It, meaning terrorism. Terrorism is what it is," Carlson said. "So why does the administration continue to have such a problem telling the American people and the rest of the world just that? …. That since our own leaders don't see any of these attacks as terrorism right away, neither should we?"

The problem with Carlson’s statement is that she’s dead wrong. Fantastically, ineptly and perhaps deliberately wrong – a true, first-class idiotic statement.

Here’s exactly what President Obama said in an official statement about this terror attack in Paris prior to Carlson’s commentary:

President Obama: “I strongly condemn the horrific shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris that has reportedly killed 12 people. …… France is America's oldest ally, and has stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States in the fight against terrorists who threaten our shared security and the world. …..France, and the great city of Paris where this outrageous attack took place, offer the world a timeless example that will endure well beyond the hateful vision of these killers. We are in touch with French officials and I have directed my Administration to provide any assistance needed to help bring these terrorists to justice.”

Also, prior to Carlson’s comments, Secretary of State John Kerry:

John Kerry:  "The murderers dared proclaim, 'Charlie Hebdo is dead.' But make no mistake: They are wrong," Kerry said. "The freedom of expression that it represented is not able to be killed by this kind of act of terror."

Carlson, like most other talking heads on Faux News, will never pass up any tragedy or horror to try to make political gain by attacking President Obama. They love to play to the worst fears and prejudices of their older, white audience.  To Carlson, and the extreme right wingnuts she courts while trying desperately to portray Obama as somehow, incredulously being weak on terror, here’s all I have to say:

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Canada Wins World Junior Hockey Gold & Whitewater

Canada defeated Russia 5-4 Monday evening to win the World Junior Hockey Championship at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.  It was a tough, rugged game but the Canadian boys deserved the Gold as they went through the tournament undefeated winning all seven games they played.  Looks like Canada will be in good shape in hockey on the international stage for several years to come as these kids are good!

Canada defeated Russia 5-4 in the Gold Medal game

The weather is heating up fast here in Palm Springs and it sure feels nice. Sunday morning was another beautiful day and we took advantage of it by heading out to one of our favourite local spots here – the Whitewater Preserve just a few miles west on I-10 from our location in Desert Hot Springs.

Following the well-marked trail out into the desert at Whitewater

There are a lot of hiking choices at Whitewater from fairly mild to rugged climbs up to the crest of the mountains. The trails go on for miles – thousands of miles actually as the Pacific Crest Trail runs right through the preserve so one could hike all the way north to Canada or south to Mexico.  We didn’t do either of those.

Instead, we just chose a leisurely hike along a trail that followed the Whitewater River. Calling it a river is a bit of a stretch right now because there was barely a trickle of water and we could walk right across to the other side without really getting our feet wet.  When it does rain out here I’m told the river turns into a raging torrent as the water flows down from the mountains and roars across the desert floor.  That would be fun to see from a safe vantage point.

Even though we didn’t hike for hours and hours on Sunday morning it was still nice to seed the end of the trail as we arrived back at the Ranger Station.

The huge fish ponds behind the Ranger Station at Whitewater

All I can say is it was another beautiful morning spent at the Whitewater Preserve.

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A Long, Early Morning Walk In Rancho Mirage

On Saturday morning we took a drive and stopped for a bit at one of our favourite small parks in Rancho Mirage which is just a few miles east of Palm Springs.

The park has an official name which escapes me but most folks seem to refer to it as Frank Sinatra park as there is a commemorative plaque honouring him and he lived on the same street as the park - Frank Sinatra Drive – of course!

The last time we were at this park we noticed a sign for the Butler-Adams trail.  This trail followed a deep wash (sort of like a ravine) that is built to carry water in the case of heavy rains as there don’t seem to be many storm drains in this area. 

Most times these washes are bone dry.  The Butler-Adams Trail was built high on the bank of the wash and a few hundred yards along the trail it careened down into the wash and across where it followed a golf course for quite a distance.  We decided to walk the entire trail to see where it led.

This is typical of the dry washes in the Palm Springs area

You may be able to see our silver Chevy Duramax parked above in the wash. This was the start of the trail with the Frank Sinatra park on the right.  One thing we really enjoy about walking in this part of town is the variety of fruit trees compared to home in BC. At home, Apple, Pear and Cherry trees are very common but not the Lemon, Grapefruit and Orange trees we see everywhere in Palm Springs.

One of the loaded Grapefruit trees in the park

It was another beautiful, warm morning and just perfect for a hike. This is another very popular area so we met many other folks along the way plus a lot of dogs out for walks as well. 

It wasn’t very long before the dry wash of the ravine turned into a lush, green golf course.  In Palm Springs they seem to build golf courses anywhere they can and if a wash never gets water in it then turn it into a golf course!

The hike turned out to be quite a nice walk that took us about 2 hours to get to the end and back.

It was lunchtime by the time we got back to the RV park.  After a quick bite to eat we just went out back and settled into our gravity chairs to soak up some sunshine.

It’s been 2 weeks since we arrived at the Sands and I still haven’t unpacked my golf clubs.  They’re still in the basement storage area where I put them when we left Desert Hot Springs late last March.

Who knows – maybe I’ll just leave them there and skip golf this year.  Then again, I just may get the urge to give it a go one of these fine days we’ll see.

Yesterday, Sunday, we drove out to the Whitewater Preserve for another hike this time out into the desert.  We really expected to see some water in the Whitewater River given the storms that passed through this area a few weeks ago.  The river was barely a trickle.  In face, we were able to tip-toe right across it but I’ll leave that hike until my next blog probably tomorrow!

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Apocalyptic GOP Predictions (Hopes?) For 2015 Fall Flat

Since we’re only a few days into the new year of 2015 and many of us are looking forward with hope to a year filled with promise, hope and good times, It might be worth looking at a few of the dire predictions made by several GOP talking heads (including perennial presidential hopeful Mitt 47% Romney) and ask yourselves how accurate they were?  My belief isn’t that these were the honest predictions of these folks but rather their fervent hopes of what might happen.  As usual, they are dead wrong!

What top Republicans predicted for 2015

Thankfully, gas is at its lowest price in years, the stock market is setting record highs, unemployment is down and the US economy is surging again.  There is no collapse occurring as loud-mouth Rush hopes for, gas is not $10 a gallon as Newt hoped for and the stock market has not crashed as Bozo the Trump predicted. As for 47% Romney?  Who cares what he hoped for!

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Another Nice Day And My Roam Mobility Verdict

The temps are beginning to slowly rise back to normal here in Palm Springs but even though it’s still a bit cooler than usual it was warm enough for me to get back into the outdoor pool this afternoon.  Blue skies, bright sun and no wind at all made it seem a lot warmer than the actual 60F.

Mason snuggling up to his Uncle Kevin (our son)

We had some chores to take care of this morning with Paulette handling the laundry while I drove down to Blair’s RV to get one of our propane tanks re-filled. Other than that and a swim, all I did was do some loops in the park and later in the afternoon, Paulette and I took Rylie for a walk around the exterior of the park.

Since we arrived at the Sands back on Dec. 21st, I’ve been giving our little Roam Mobility ‘Liberty Hotspot’ a real test everywhere I go to see what the cellular reception is like and what kind of performance I get when we connect our iPhones to the hotspot.

I’m pleased to say that the service and performance here in the entire Palm Springs area has been excellent. Whether I’m walking around the park, at the pool, in downtown Palm Springs or simply driving anywhere in the Coachella Valley the Liberty Hotspot has maintained a strong 4G LTE signal.  It’s so small I can just slip it into my pocket!

For us, it’s the perfect lo-cost addition to the Time Warner broadband cable we have at the Sands RV Resort. Could it replace the Time Warner broadband?  No, it could not do that anymore than we could cancel our Shaw Broadband Cable service at home to just go with our Telus cellular. The broadband has virtually unlimited GB’s and is extremely fast so the Roam Mobility service here is simply an add-on for when we’re on the move driving somewhere or just walking around in the park.  I’m happy with it and will definitely be using it again next year.

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Starting The New Year Off On The Right Foot

That would be both feet, I guess, as we went for a hike in the desert to get 2015 off to a healthy start.  The sun was shining, we had blue skies and even though it was cool with no wind at all it felt very comfortable for hiking in shorts and a sweatshirt.

Before we headed out for our hike though we had some phone calls to make to kids in Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. We also had a very fun video chat with our little man Mason. He is determined to reach right through the computer screen and try to grab us to give us a hug.  We’d love to be able to do that but it was nice to see him and at least talk to him for a while.

By the time we finished all the phone calls it was close to 10am and we had about a 30 minute drive over to La Quinta east on I-10 and then south on Washington St. for several miles before we arrived at the parking lot of the Cove Oasis Park.  It seemed that lots of other people had the same idea of a hike to start the new year as the small lot was full. No problem though as there was lots of street parking available.

It was a perfect morning for a hike and we headed out into the desert on one of the many trails that traverse this part of the desert. Due to Bighorn Sheep in the area the trails where dogs are allowed is limited to mostly the desert floor. That was o.k. with us as we’re not quite ready yet for a rigorous hike up into the hills.

It was good to get some exercise as on New Year’s Eve we went out for dinner with 3 other couples from here in the park. We enjoy going out for dinner but we are determined this year not to head home packing extra weight so I guess we’ll be doing lots of hiking and exercise. 

We spent about an hour and a half walking out in the desert and it felt really good.  The temps are still a bit cooler than normal but it’s expected by the weekend we should be back up into the 70’s and next week looks even better.  By the time we got back to our truck and then drove back into the Sands it was nearly 1pm and only an hour away from the Oregon Ducks college playoff game against Florida State.  I was looking forward to that game!

Oregon crushed the defending national champion Florida State 59-20!  Way to go Ducks!  Russ and Donna up in Eugene are probably still duck-walking around their home in celebration as they shout out their secret duck-calls!  Last night I watched Ohio St. beat #1 Alabama so it’s going to be Oregon vs Ohio St. for the national championship on Jan. 12th.  Nice to see the SEC reign come to an end!

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My Favourite Quote Of 2014

Over the past year, I’ve read and heard hundreds, maybe thousands, of comments from politicians, celebrities, athletes, friends, bloggers and acquaintances. Some, I couldn’t remember even an hour later while others seem to stick in my mind a lot longer. For this past year, the one remark that has stayed with me is one I saw on a Facebook page written by our daughter Carrie.  She left these simple, heartfelt words in response to a comment left by a friend:

Carrie:  “Mason has made my dreams come true!”

That pretty much sums up everything in just 7 words. What Carrie wrote on Facebook pretty much goes for our whole family with regards to our little man.  Mason is a dream come true for all of us.  There’s one more thing though that I’d like to add and it’s if Mason could talk right now I know he’d be saying:  “I am such a lucky little boy to have such a wonderful, loving and caring Mommy to constantly look after me and make every minute of each day full of fun and hugs….it’s a dream come true”!   

 

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